TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
In the plain text version words in Italics are denoted by _underscores_.
A number of words in this book have both hyphenated and non-hyphenatedvariants. For the words with both variants present the one more usedhas been kept.
Obvious punctuation and other printing errors have been corrected.
The Table of Contents was added by the transcriber.
[Pg ii]
FANTASY
Heinemann’s International Library.
Edited by EDMUND GOSSE.
Crown 8vo, in paper covers, 2s. 6d., or cloth limp, 3s. 6d.
IN GOD’S WAY.
By BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON.
Translated from the Norwegian by Elizabeth Carmichael.
PIERRE AND JEAN.
By GUY DE MAUPASSANT.
Translated from the French by Clara Bell.
THE CHIEF JUSTICE.
By KARL EMIL FRANZOS.
Translated from the German by Miles Corbet.
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
By COUNT LYON TOLSTOI.
Translated from the Russian by E. J. Dillon, Ph.D.
FANTASY.
By MATILDE SERAO.
Translated from the Italian by Henry Harland andPaul Sylvester.
FROTH.
By ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS.
Translated from the Spanish by Clara Bell.
Other Volumes will be announced later.
Each Volume will contain a Specially Written Introductionby the Editor.
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford St., W.C.
[Pg iii]
FANTASY
A NOVEL
BY
MATILDE SERAO
TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN
BY
HENRY HARLAND & PAUL SYLVESTER
LONDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN
1891
[All rights reserved]
[Pg v]
INTRODUCTION.
The most prominent imaginative writer of the latest generationin Italy is a woman. What little is known of the private lifeof Matilde Serao adds, as forcibly as what may be divinedfrom the tenour and material of her books, to the impressionthat every student of literary history must have formed ofthe difficulties which hem in the intellectual development ofan ambitious girl. Without unusual neglect, unusual misfortune,it seems impossible for a woman to arrive at that experiencewhich is essential to the production of work which shallbe able to compete with the work